Chapter 16
The Master Revealed! Farewell to Hinamizawa!


Wario was still stuck at the hole trying to push himself up. "Are you done yet?! We're getting smothered down here!" Mion's voice shouted from below.

"Can't you see I'm struggling? Have patience, will you?!" Wario shouted back.

"It's been like 15 minutes already!!"

"Bah! That's nothing! A cartoon show hasn't even ended yet!"

"It's not the same situation!"

"How are we going to get out of here…?" Shion cried.

Then an idea came to Wario. "I have an idea! I'm going to use my biggest pride to get out of here! If this doesn't work, pigs will surely fly."

"What are you doing?" Mion asked.

"Close your nose if you have to, because it may smell a bit," Wario told them, and then he took a deep breath and concentrated hard to gather energy into the bottom.

"We can't move out hands either! How are we going to…?"

Before she could finish talking, Wario suddenly yelled, "Thar she blows!" And with a loud bang, Wario shot out of the hole and into the air as brown gas spread out all over the place. He did several spins in air before falling down on his feet next to the hole. "Tadah! What did I tell you? Pigs still cannot fly unfortunately! Hey, you girls all right?" He looked down the hole and saw the twins still standing there, but they had a lifeless expression on their face, one that seems to show a horrible death. "Hey, are you all right? Can you hear me? Hello?"

-

Within the temple of Oyashiro-sama…

The door to the great temple opened and a man was seen standing there with the bright sunlight shining in from behind. The man wore a business suit and he was tall and muscular. He had short blond hair that was neatly trimmed and he showed a stern expression on his face. There was also what looked like a sword sheathe strapped around his back.

The man looked at the statue of Oyashiro-sama and thought to himself, "That must be it."

-

Meanwhile, a fight was going on back in the village.

Bowser swung his claw at Jumpclusion, who jumped up very high into the air to dodge the attack. Bowser looked up and saw him falling down for a stomp, so he got out of the way as Jumpclusion landed with such a force that the ground cracked. Bowser immediately breathed fire at him, but Jumpclusion jumped away again. "Man! You're even jumpier than Mario!" Bowser said.

Next to them, Ike and Joykiller were dueling with each other. Joykiller threw several shurikens at Ike, who easily knocked them away with his sword. He dashed forward and tried to hit him with his sword, and Joykiller got out his katana blade and clashed with him. Ike swung with such a force that Joykiller actually flinched from the blow, and as Ike tried to hit him again, Joykiller leaped back and threw some kunais that were easily deflected.

Ike shot out a sword beam from his Ragnell afterwards, and Joykiller was shot by it as he landed. But to Ike's surprise, the ninja exploded in a puff of smoke after getting hit. "A clone?" Ike thought. "That means…" He turned around in the nick of time to see Joykiller about to slice his head off with his sword. He clashed swords with him and pushed the ninja back.

Joykiller did a hand sign and said, "Fire Style! Fire Fly Jutsu!" Several fireballs appeared around and shot forward and tried to burn Ike.

"Quick Draw!" Ike dashed forward with such a speed that he went through the fireballs unharmed and caught Joykiller off guard. The ninja barely avoided the blow and took a light cut to his body.

"You're good," Joykiller said. "Looks like I am out of league for you. The only way to deal with you now is to unleash the power that the master gave to us all." He held his sword horizontally in front of him and said, "Final Transforma…"

But before he could finish his phrase, Eggman suddenly fell down in front of him and surprised him. "Wha?!"

"Eggman?" Ike said curiously.

"Ow… I'll get those brats for this…" Eggman cried, rubbing his butt. He was shocked to see Ike in front of him. "Not you again!"

"What are you doing here?" Ike asked.

"Argh! This sure is a bad day for me!" Eggman growled. "I got beaten by two kids and lost all my machines! I've never had such terrible luck even with Sonic!"

Joykiller suddenly heard a voice in his ear, and Jumpclusion also heard this and stop attacking Bowser. "The master has responded," Joykiller said to Jumpclusion.

"Yes, it appears that the objective has been reached," Jumpclusion said. "The master has found the first half of Everything."

This news shocked Ike and Bowser, as well as Eggman. "What?!"

"There is no reason for us to fight now that the master has found what he wants," Joykiller said. "Just when our fight is starting to reach an intense part, something just had to happen to halt it. And thus, nothing in this world can ever go as you want."

"Darn it…" Ike cursed. "How can this happen? We got carried off by this too much that we forgot the most important thing…"

Eggman stomped the ground and said, "Argh! Beaten again! Why must I always be on the losing side?! I can't stand it any longer!"

"Boss!" shouted Scratch and Grounder as they ran over to this place. "Thanks goodness you're all right!"

Ness and the others, including Wario and the twins, showed up behind them shortly afterwards. "How is everything here?" Ness asked.

"Hey, did I miss out the fun? Where are the bad guys?" Wario asked.

"Seems like we lost…" Bowser said. "Our objective here in the first place, that is…"

"You mean… Everything is found by the bad guys?!" Kirby gasped. Bowser nodded his head as reply. "No!!"

Then at this moment, the same man who entered the temple appeared before them. "The job is done," he said. "We have no more reason to be here."

"Yes, master," Jumpclusion and Joykiller said, and they ran up next to him.

"So you're the master…" Ike said.

"Wait a minute! I know that man!" Olimar said, pointing to the man.

"He's not just any man!" Eggman added. "He is the founder of Smelton Biotech Incorporation—Jim Smelton!"

"What?! The webmaster of Gamfax?!" Ness gasped. Everyone looked at the man standing before them in shock.

"So he is the man who created the website Gamfax…" Kirby said.

"Smashers, the one who struck down the Negativities who tried to take over the world using the power of Gamfax," the man, Jim Smelton, said. "Your feats are indeed amazing."

"So you are the master of these Failures," Ike said. "You have a lot explaining to do here."

"Of course, there is a lot to be explained to you," Smelton said. "But I have business to attend to, so it is better that you learn all that you want to know next time."

"Mr. Smelton!" Takano called to him. "You promised me that you will help me get my revenge! I want all the people who opposed me dead right now!"

"I have no more time for this," Smelton replied. "Now that I have found what I want, I have no more intentions of helping you."

"What?! But you…"

"Small things like do not matter my real objective. There is no reason for me to help anyone living in this world, as my dream to create the perfect world has taken a step closer!"

"Then why are you helping her in the first place?" Ike asked.

Smelton eyed him and said, "Do you know what the feeling of your ancestors being mistreated and shunned upon is like? I know that feeling very well, and that is why I helped her."

"I don't know about your ancestors or anything, but I suggest that you drop behind the power and get out of here!" Bowser said. "Speaking of which, where did you find it anyway?"

"You Smashers came here without knowing the hidden place of the power in the first place…? It was hidden within the statue of Oyashiro-sama."

"What…? I knew that wasn't a wrong feeling of mine when I first went there…" Ike said.

Suddenly, strong wind was felt and everyone looked up and saw helicopters flying in the sky. "This is the police!" a speaker on one of the helicopters called out. "We are here to arrest Takano, the one that is threatening the village!"

"Let us make our leave," Smelton said.

"Yes, master," Jumpclusion and Joykiller said.

"Hey! You're not going anywhere!" Bowser shouted.

"Mr. Smelton! Wait! Don't leave me!" Takano cried.

Then a circle appeared below the three villains and it released a bright light that slowly made them sink into it.

"No!! Don't leave me behind!!"

"Dammit! They got away!" Bowser cursed. "It wouldn't have been a big deal if they haven't taken the power"!

"We better make a run for it too…" Eggman said to his two lackeys. He pressed a button on his shirt and suddenly a pair of metallic wings appeared from his back.

"What the?!" TL gasped.

"I was wearing a jet pack underneath my shirt the whole time for situations like this!" Eggman explained. "I may have lost this time, but the next time we meet, I will not be so merciful!" Scratch and Grounder grabbed onto the wings and the engines underneath the tip of the wings grew stronger and they all took off into the air and flew away.

"They got away too…" Kirby said.

"It's not like he's a threat to begin with," Ness said.

Takano's men began to run knowing that the police are here, but they were too late to escape as the helicopters landed in front of them and the policemen came out to arrest them.

"I will not get caught here!" Takano shouted, and she ran in the direction that didn't have helicopters blocking.

"Oh no you don't!" Keichi shouted, and he threw his baseball bat at her and it struck her straight in the back of the head and knocked her to the ground.

CONK!

"OW!"

And thus, Takano and all her men were arrested and the villagers all came back to the village after learning about this news.

"Guess everything is resolved here…" Ness said, watching the police taking the villains away.

"Hopefully this village will be more peaceful now that the one behind everything is gone at last," Rika said. "Thank you very much."

"Nah, we didn't do anything," Kirby said. "We came here knowing nothing about this place and we weren't even here to do this either."

"You people were here to look for Everything, right?"

"Yeah, we knew that someone is going to take it for evil use," Ness told her. "That is why we actually came here to stop whoever is taking it. But…"

"It's such a pity indeed, since that is what people call the power of the gods…"

-

That night, the Watanagashi Festival took place, and the gang was showing the Smashers around the place and giving them a fun time.

"This festival sure is fun!" Kirby said while eating meatballs on a stick.

"I'm glad you like it!" Rena said to him. "I know another place with great foods!"

-

TL was at the shooting booth shooting down the targets. He shot down all the targets and won a large teddy bear as prize, but he gave it to Satoko who was next to him. "You can have this," he said.

"Thank you! You're so good with the shooting-wa!" she said happily.

"That was nothing. That green-haired girl is very good too."

"That's because she has a bodyguard with skills like this and she learned sniping from him."

-

Soon afterwards, everyone was gathered in front of the temple shrine. Rika, being the priestess, was doing festival rituals on the stage such as bell ringing and other stuff that I don't understand.

"That is to give thanks to Oyashiro-sama," Mion explained to the Smashers.

"I don't understand any of this, but I can tell that it's something important," Bowser said.

"Rika looks so cute in priestess garb!" Rena said happily. "I wonder how cute Kirby will look in those garbs too."

As Rika performed for tasks, Hanyu appeared next to her and said, "This is great, Rika! This is the first time that somebody didn't day during the festival!"

"I know," Rika said quietly. "The curse has been lifted at long last."

-

To make a long story short (how many times have I been saying this?), it was the first night for seven years that nobody died during the Watanagashi Festival, and perhaps nobody will ever die on this day again.

The curse of the village has at long last been lifted. Hinamizawa can finally live in peace…

-

The next day at school…

"They left already?" Keichi asked.

"Yeah, Satoko and I went to the house they rented and found nobody there. When I asked the landlord, he said they moved out since morning," Rika replied.

"Awww… I wanted to see and hug Kirby one last time…" Rena cried. "He's so cute!"

"Well, you knew that they'll be leaving sooner or later. They have lots of things to do," Mion said.

"I'm sure they will come back again," Shion said.

Satoko looked the saddest after learning that the Smashers left. "I wanted to give this to him..." She was holding a folded letter behind her.

Rika patted her on the shoulder and said, "Don't be sad. Maybe they'll come here again someday. You like Toon Link, don't you? Can I read your letter?"

"No!" Satoko cried, pulling the letter away, but Mion snatched it from her hand. "Hey! Give it back!"

"Woohoo! A love letter! I'm going to read it out loud!" Mion said mockingly.

Rika smiled as she watched her friends mess around. Wherever those Smashers are now, she thought, they will be marked down in history as the ones who broke the curse of Hinamizawa.


TO BE CONTINUED

Well, this concludes the Higurashi arc. I hope it turned out well. It goes without saying that this chapter revealed a large revelation, but there are still things yet to be revealed. In case you forgotten, Jim Smelton was first mentioned in Rise of the Negativities. Yes, I planned that far ahead already when I was still working on that story. As for how Everything was extracted from the statue... Just wait.

In case you're wonder how the twins got out of the hole, Ness and co. came soon afterwards and helped pull them out together.